Jodie and I headed out to the Outer Banks of North Carolina for the big 100th celebration.
We stopped by the Hatteras Lighthouse. They actually moved this thing in land about a mile a few years about by building a track and pushing it with hydraulic pistons.
So it's December 15th, the wind is blowing, it's 30-something degrees, there are guys SURFING?
Some of the town of Hatteras was actually washed into the ocean during Hurricane Isabelle last fall. They had only gotten the road open again three weeks before the 100th celebration. Up until then, they were bringing in everything by ferry.
On Dec 16th, they dragged the Wright Flyer replica out onto the flying field. Everybody crowed around and followed it along like photographers on an Enron executive. I'm not quite sure what the big deal was because you were allowed to walk right up to it when it was in the display building.
They had some great air show performers. These guys are the Aeroshell team. They fly T6-Texans in aerobatic formations. Great sounding airplanes.
U2 - the plane, not the band. As it should be.
Lady, you better hope the 50 calibers aren't loaded. Jodie's got an itchy trigger finger.
Lee Greenwood is still "Proud to be an American". He did that song three times in the two days we were there. Unless George W. has a son somewhere, it may be the last time we hear that catchy tune.
"Honey, you've got to hear this, Lee Greenwood NEVER sings this song. Here, I'll hold up my cell phone for you."
George W. showed up in 5 helicopters on the big day.
He even had a battleship, just in case. I don't quite know what the ship would do if anything happened though.
It wasn't meant to be on the 17th though. The Flyer needed floats to use this field. (You can see the track in the upper right of the photo.)
This was a Wright Brothers / Dale Earnhardt tribute horse. Hey, this is NASCAR country. They do get credit for using an actual V8 engine block.